Counting occurrences of 132 in an even permutation

We study the generating function for the number of even (or odd) permutations on n letters containing exactly r\gs0 occurrences of 132. It is shown that finding this function for a given r amounts to a routine check of all permutations in $S_{2r}$.Comment: 12 pages, 2 figure

Anick-type resolutions and consecutive pattern avoidance

For permutations avoiding consecutive patterns from a given set, we present a combinatorial formula for the multiplicative inverse of the corresponding exponential generating function. The formula comes from homological algebra considerations in the same sense as the corresponding inversion formula for avoiding word patterns comes from the well known Anick's resolution.Comment: 16 pages. Preliminary version, comments are welcom

Place-difference-value patterns: A generalization of generalized permutation and word patterns

Motivated by study of Mahonian statistics, in 2000, Babson and Steingrimsson introduced the notion of a "generalized permutation pattern" (GP) which generalizes the concept of "classical" permutation pattern introduced by Knuth in 1969. The invention of GPs led to a large number of publications related to properties of these patterns in permutations and words. Since the work of Babson and Steingrimsson, several further generalizations of permutation patterns have appeared in the literature, each bringing a new set of permutation or word pattern problems and often new connections with other combinatorial objects and disciplines. For example, Bousquet-Melou et al. introduced a new type of permutation pattern that allowed them to relate permutation patterns theory to the theory of partially ordered sets. In this paper we introduce yet another, more general definition of a pattern, called place-difference-value patterns (PDVP) that covers all of the most common definitions of permutation and/or word patterns that have occurred in the literature. PDVPs provide many new ways to develop the theory of patterns in permutations and words. We shall give several examples of PDVPs in both permutations and words that cannot be described in terms of any other pattern conditions that have been introduced previously. Finally, we raise several bijective questions linking our patterns to other combinatorial objects.Comment: 18 pages, 2 figures, 1 tabl

Some open problems on permutation patterns

This is a brief survey of some open problems on permutation patterns, with an emphasis on subjects not covered in the recent book by Kitaev, \emph{Patterns in Permutations and words}. I first survey recent developments on the enumeration and asymptotics of the pattern 1324, the last pattern of length 4 whose asymptotic growth is unknown, and related issues such as upper bounds for the number of avoiders of any pattern of length $k$ for any given $k$. Other subjects treated are the M\"obius function, topological properties and other algebraic aspects of the poset of permutations, ordered by containment, and also the study of growth rates of permutation classes, which are containment closed subsets of this poset.Comment: 20 pages. Related to upcoming talk at the British Combinatorial Conference 2013. To appear in London Mathematical Society Lecture Note Serie

Generalized permutation patterns - a short survey

An occurrence of a classical pattern p in a permutation π is a subsequence of π whose letters are in the same relative order (of size) as those in p. In an occurrence of a generalized pattern, some letters of that subsequence may be required to be adjacent in the permutation. Subsets of permutations characterized by the avoidance—or the prescribed number of occurrences— of generalized patterns exhibit connections to an enormous variety of other combinatorial structures, some of them apparently deep. We give a short overview of the state of the art for generalized patterns

On the Asymptotic Statistics of the Number of Occurrences of Multiple Permutation Patterns

We study statistical properties of the random variables $X_{\sigma}(\pi)$, the number of occurrences of the pattern $\sigma$ in the permutation $\pi$. We present two contrasting approaches to this problem: traditional probability theory and the ``less traditional'' computational approach. Through the perspective of the first one, we prove that for any pair of patterns $\sigma$ and $\tau$, the random variables $X_{\sigma}$ and $X_{\tau}$ are jointly asymptotically normal (when the permutation is chosen from $S_{n}$). From the other perspective, we develop algorithms that can show asymptotic normality and joint asymptotic normality (up to a point) and derive explicit formulas for quite a few moments and mixed moments empirically, yet rigorously. The computational approach can also be extended to the case where permutations are drawn from a set of pattern avoiders to produce many empirical moments and mixed moments. This data suggests that some random variables are not asymptotically normal in this setting.Comment: 18 page